Reader UI of the Week: Twigleaf's healer UI
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 21st 2009 at 12:00PM
Reader UI of the Week is back! Each week WoW.com will bring you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@gmail.com.
Let it never be said that I don't listen. After last week's sparse screenshot, many of you said you wanted to see a UI in real action, and especially a healer UI. I got a number of good submissions, but Twigleaf's (of Unity on Velen) stood out from the pack by being both very functional and very pretty. Everything has a place, the screen is information-packed, and nothing is ugly.
If this was my UI, I would move the center scrolling combat text up a bit, since I like to keep the very center of my screen clear to watch for things. But hey, it's not my UI. Let's see what Twigleaf has to say about it.
Lately, I've noticed that a lot of people are commenting that they would like to see a UI pictured with raid frames and all of those other mods necessary for raids. My UI is designed around seeing everything I need to know as a healer, while keeping many of the add ons smaller so that I can see when my raid members are standing in fires, void zones, or Yogg clouds. I also like to be neat and orderly, and my screen is arranged as symmetrically as possible with concurrent color schemes. My UI goes to show that you can have a lot of important raid add ons running while still being able to have a large amount of screen space. I use a Clique and Grid combination for healing the raid to minimize space. Overall, the UI is made to look sleek and get the job done.
Yep! Looks sleek, gets the job done, and shows a ton of information. As a raid healer myself, this is everything I'd need: raid frames down and center, myself and target frames below my character, tank frames off to the left, damage and threat meter down in the bottom-right.
I especially like the various rounded corners on the eePanels. The only thing that doesn't quite fit in this interface to me is the main tank frames; they need a little more integration as far as appearance. Overall though, a great healing UI.
Addons used:
- Acheron: death info
- Ackis Recipe List: profession info
- ArkInventory: bag compressor
- Atlasloot Enhanced: loot display
- Auctioneer: AH mod
- Bartender 4: Action bar replacement Bidder_EPGP: DKP mod
- ButtonFacade: button appearance changer
- Chatter: chat mod
- ClassLoot: shows loot priorities
- Clique: click-casting mod
- CowTip: tooltip replacement
- Deadly Boss Mods: boss timers and info
- Decursive: debuff remover
- eePanels 2: colored squares to add to background
- Elkano's Buff Bars: buff and debuff info
- Grid: raid frames replacement
- Grid Mana Bars: adds mana bars to grid
- GridStatusHots: tracks HoTs on grid
- HealPoints: tracks healing capabilities
- MiksScrollingBattleText: combat text mod
- Minimap Button Frame: collects minimap buttons into a moveable square
- Omen: threat meter
- oRA2: important raid info
- Pitbull: unit frames mod
- Quartz: casting bar replacement
- RatingBuster: tracks loot upgrades/stats
- Recount: combat meters
- SexyMap: minimap replacement
- SLDataText: FuBar-like add on with display info
And here's a bonus screenshot for reading this far, of the UI in its resting state.
Interested in getting the most out of your user interface? Come back once a week for more examples of reader UIs. For more details on individual addons, check out Addon Spotlight, your source for everything addon-related.
Filed under: Add-Ons, Raiding, Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sinknight Jun 21st 2009 12:07PM
Nice UI. It looks nice and definitely seems functional.
Quorniya Jun 21st 2009 12:15PM
Awesome looking UI, Twigleaf! I play a druid healer as well, and this is a really great, well-organized resto druid UI.
Question: what mod are you using to change the font on everything, and what font is it that you're using?
poison1916 Jun 21st 2009 12:17PM
placement of msbt is horrid :| and i can imagine the placement of grid giving instant tunnel vision
Sedirex Jun 21st 2009 12:22PM
Much more interesting UI than last week, but now I can't help but wonder what it looks like when Grid's not taking up the bottom center. I guess I'll just never be satisfied.
Jack Spicer Jun 21st 2009 12:42PM
Why does recount showing the healing meter need to be constantly on in the corner?
Cyanea Jun 21st 2009 12:46PM
Mine's hidden unless I pull it out. One less thing I don't need to be looking at during a boss.
Falcon6 Jun 21st 2009 1:04PM
I think it's a perfect spot considering what sort of task Recount does. It should be away from the viewpoint of the person. It should be an afterthought. Something you can check by a quick glance if anything. *shrug*
Sim Jun 21st 2009 1:49PM
As a druid, i usually have recount up during a raid for one reason. The raid leaders both in my guild and on my server rarely think to call for rebirths on individuals forcing me to use my own initiative. If I have more than one dps member down I often use recount to prioritize whom I'll pick up. Like Twig though, its off in a corner where I don't get distracted by it.
Cyanea Jun 21st 2009 12:46PM
I rather like the layout of that one. Might have to steal the placement of my healthbar and that of the tank/my target.
http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss10/bloodfyr/kedria-uijpg.jpg is mine, though slightly out-of-date. The Xperl party frames were only there while I got used to Grid.
Presage Jun 21st 2009 1:07PM
What is with people and their terrible fonts? Otherwise a great UI... but that font... :|
Ayla Jun 21st 2009 12:58PM
I'm a raid healer and this UI is amazingly similar to mine (although I like mine better!) I even use the same font for non-chat info - it's called Emblem btw, as someone asked upthread.
smcn Jun 21st 2009 1:03PM
Same here! Well, my "old" UI anyways. Must be some kind of healer groupthink...
romiress Jun 21st 2009 1:07PM
Very similar to mine (Also a resto druid)... but Omen?
I've never found a situation where Omen will actually help me heal.
Zuckerdachs Jun 21st 2009 2:32PM
It isn't as useful now as it was during BC, but a lot of us still use it out of habit. I used it then because threat was a much bigger problem, particularly for healers. If I saw myself or another healer climbing the charts, I'd back off or start tossing the other guys a preventive heal just in case they didn't catch themselves in time. It just doesn't feel right not having it on my screen at this point.
hanster007 Jun 21st 2009 4:16PM
As a healadin I use Omen all the time to toss out Hand of Salvation.
Tim Jun 21st 2009 1:32PM
I'm using Healbot and AGUF, and don't know if that matters, but I've always wanted to know how to ID my tanks, as you do here. Is this a PitBull thing? Thanks for you help!
Quorniya Jun 21st 2009 1:49PM
The main tank windows that you see on the left are from ORA2. ORA2 lets the raid leaders designate the tanks (and assists or other raid members) that appear in those windows, and broadcast them to everyone else in the raid who is also running ORA2.
It also has some other nice features like showing important raid cooldowns (battle rezzes, soulstones, ankhs, etc) and in a recent update, trash respawn timers.
Highly recommended for any raid.
Avan Jun 21st 2009 1:41PM
Eww, Grid. And a healing meter? Bleh.
jaenicoll Jun 21st 2009 2:43PM
Hmmm. I may be way off here but this type of comment smacks of either elitism "I'm so great I don't need to use Grid or healbot" or self deception about your 2 click reaction speed over a 1 click.
IMO, If a healer uses Grid or Healbot and puts out excellent heals, shields & decurses for the raid then they have done their job regardless of the tools they used.
Apologies if I misread your comment.
Avan Jun 21st 2009 3:12PM
I'm a healer myself, and I don't use Grid. It doesn't provide enough information about the target. Indicator dots on the frame might work for some people, but I prefer to know what magic effects I'm dispelling or what buffs are affecting the target. When I used Grid, it was saying the mage was affected by a magic effect. Which one, I didn't know. Were they frozen in place, polymorphed, or asleep? Didn't know until the mage said "stop removing my arcane blast!"
Also, I have no problems with one click casting.